


Cold Coffee

by sunsetude



Category: NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Parents, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Parent-Child Dynamics, Parenthood, Slice of Life, this needs editing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-24 22:47:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22005706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetude/pseuds/sunsetude
Summary: Kun’s coffee has gone cold, Ten’s knocked out on the sofa, Hendery is halfway through building something out of a mess of play dough, Renjun’s scribbling away on his tablet, Yangyang’s got lego everywhere and Chenle’s singing along to frozen like his life depends on it.Kun’s exhausted, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun
Comments: 18
Kudos: 175
Collections: kuniversism





	Cold Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> to the prompter, I hope this does your prompt justice. I have to say I’m not sure how I feel about it but I gave it a whirl and I hope you enjoy. It’s a bunch of dad!Kun scenes through the years that I thought were cute mixed with my rambly writing. (I think the ending is my favourite part so stick with me,,)
> 
> as always, I hope you like it [](https://open.spotify.com/track/0Qhut5Vj2My3pVxjHdwAAX)

> _some days_
> 
> _we laughed until we cried,_
> 
> _other days_
> 
> _we cried until we laughed,_
> 
> _either way_
> 
> _every day_
> 
> _was perfect._

  
  


Kun’s careful as he pushes the door shut to Chenle’s bedroom, glancing one last time at the clock as he does–it reading something past eleven. He winces as he pulls it too sharply and the sound of it shutting feels like it echoes loud enough for the house at the end of the street to hear. He waits a few moments, listening closely for the telltale sounds of Chenle’s infectious giggling or the pitter-patter of little feet but, luckily, it’s quiet. Kun feels himself let out a sigh of relief as all remains quiet on the other side of the door. 

He makes his way down the stairs, skipping the steps he _knows_ will wake the kids up because they creak incessantly loudly and Renjun can sleep through the worst storms but darts awake the moment someone even hesitates to step there. 

“They’re asleep,” his voice is soft, calming, “at least for now, anyway.” He rests his head on the edge of Ten’s shoulder, sitting beside him on the sofa, Ten immediately lifting his legs to move them to rest in Kun’s lap, burying the two of them under the hoard of blankets he’s gathered to protect them from the cold December air. 

  
  


“Ah, my hero, how’d you manage to finally get them to settle?” Ten asks, voice wobbly and hoarse from whatever sickness he’s been attempting to recover from by binging brooklyn nine-nine in between episodes of paw patrol since the kids got home. 

“Bribery,” Kun sighed, watching as Ten’s face flashed a look of disappointment in a ‘ _what did you do_ ’ kind of way.

“Don’t look at me like that, I was kidding! Sort of, Renjun was reading when I checked in on him so I said a few more pages and checked his light was out before I came down. Hendery was already asleep, Yangyang took a slice of nutella and toast at breakfast and we both know he won't eat it and Chenle bargained with me on cuddle time or an extra Jisung playdate, I said it was up to you. I read a few chapters of whatever book it is your mum bought before he knocked out.” 

Ten laughed softly at that, “When did our kids start negotiating? And you _know_ Chenle’s going to wake up at god knows what hour and come bounding into our bed for cuddles now, right?” 

“Of course but it’s better than him ignoring us nine times out of ten like Renjun’s starting too. Chenle hasn’t grown up on us yet, we’ve got to hold onto it while we still can.”

“I can’t believe they’re growing up on us,” Ten laughed, “How dare they. I want them to stay small and chubby-cheeked forever.”

Ten let himself relax into Kun for a moment, letting his hand rest against Kun’s. The flickers of light from the fireplace cast a warm light light across Ten’s face and reflect off the various art pieces Ten had dotted around their living room. Kun took a second to remember the way Ten looks like this, glasses on the edge of his nose where he's too lazy to push them back, his hair messy and flat where he’s stuck to pyjamas all day, still looking effortlessly beautiful in a shirt Kun vaguely recognises as one of his old band shirts from university, the light catching on the planes of his face. “How many chapters did you get through with Chenle?”

“Just one, I started on the second but I doubt he’ll remember it, he was out like a light.” 

  
  


Ten yawns, tucking himself into Kun’s side as he nods his head in acknowledgement. They sit in silence for a little while, watching the film Kun doesn’t recognise, Ten’s turned the subtitles on, a habit he’s formed over the last few years as he tries to pick up more mandarin so he can teach their children too, rather than relying on Kun. It’s a sweet gesture, one Kun is in awe of every time. Ten seems to enjoy adding to his list of languages, picking up more and more as he travels for work and Kun pretends like he doesn’t find it ridiculously attractive.

Ten’s tucked himself further into Kun, clinging into his side and Kun can feel him starting to drift off from where his head falls further into Kun’s lap. The sight is endearing but Kun knows he can’t let Ten sleep down here, not only will the younger curse him for leaving him alone but Kun can’t let him hurt his back.

“Hey, hey, Ten, you can’t fall asleep down here love, there’s a nice cosy bed upstairs for you to fall asleep.” Kun shakes his shoulder gently, earning a groan from Ten and a mumble that sounds a lot like ‘fuck off’. “Come on love, let’s sleep upstairs. You’ll nag me in the morning if I don’t make you go to bed, you’re fussier than the kids sometimes.” 

“Hey!” Kun just smirks at him before breaking into laughter (kept quiet because, you know, four sleeping children). Ten only glares daggers at him in return but he doesn’t hold it as long as he does when he’s actually mad so Kun knows he’s busying himself facing away from Kun so he doesn’t get caught smiling too.

Kun switches all the lights off as Ten reaches for Kun to carry him but Kun only laughs, instead wrapping the blanket around Ten’s shoulders before taking his hands and leading him up the stairs. 

They curl up in bed, side by side, waiting for a couple of moments, listening for any sound in the house. Kun breathes a sigh of relief when all is quiet.

“Good night, love.”

Ten grumbles something back that Kun would like to think was ‘good night, I love you’. But Kun knows it more than likely wasn’t but he doesn’t need Ten to say ‘I love you’, not when he already knows.

  
  
  


> Kun wakes up to the sound of little feet running across the wood of their bedroom floor, a quick glance at the clock on the nightstand tells him that it’s something past four. He lets out a silent groan as he rubs his eyes and waits for his son to jump on him. 
> 
> “Baba! Wake up! It’s cuddle time! I’m here for my daily hugs, you _promised_.”
> 
> “Lele, it’s very early. We should all be fast asleep.”
> 
> “You _promised_.” Kun knows Chenle’s up now and there’s no getting him back to sleep without giving in. He takes another look at his five year old peering up at him with puppy-dog eyes before he pulls him into bed, settling him in the middle between Ten and Kun. Ten stirs a little, realising they’ve been joined by their youngest, before falling back asleep too.
> 
> “We can have cuddles buddy but you’ve got to go back to sleep otherwise we’re all going to be grumpy all day, got it?”
> 
> “Good night baba!” 
> 
> “Night night Lele.”

  
  


* * *

They have a Friday night movie night every week. It’s the night they let the kids stay up later than usual and it works on getting them to fall asleep at a usual time. They’d had one of the Toy Story films on tonight, Hendery’s favourites.

Chenle’s drifting off around halfway through the movie, he’s completely knocked out by the time the credits begin to roll. Rejun had already made his own way up to bed sometime during the film, unlike his brothers he hated falling asleep on the sofa. Hendery and Yangyang were still holding on but Kun knows that if he doesn’t move them up to bed now, they will end up entirely zonked and Kun doesn’t fancy trying to move them. 

Kun, _luckily_ , has bedtime down. It’s always something he’s been a bit too proud of but he has a talent for getting Chenle into his pyjamas without waking him up (or jim-jams as they’re referred to in the Qian household as Chenle can’t say pyjamas yet and no one can stand the look of frustration on his face whenever he tries to mimic someone else saying it so they went on a ‘jim-jams’ or ‘jammies’ lockdown). The rest of the kids had put theirs on before the film (like Kun had asked them to), but Chenle had refused and neither parent felt like dealing with that tantrum today. He even manages to get Hendery and Yangyang to brush their teeth without any whining and he feels like that’s bonus dad points.

Kun holds Chenle in his arms for a few extra moments, taking a moment to treat himself to a gently snoring toddler lightly clinging to his shirt, getting a whiff of that soft baby smell. It’s comforting and Kun doesn’t feel the slightest bit guilty in making the other children brush their teeth for an extra minute while he snuggles Chenle. Eventually, he gives in with a kiss to the top of his head, sighing at the way Chenle only relaxes more as he does that, before letting him go and putting him in his own bed. Chenle doesn’t stir in the slightest, thank god. 

Hendery asks Kun to sing while he gets tucked in, Kun only just finishes the second verse before Hendery has finally caught up with the rest of his body and knocks out. With a kiss to his head and a soft ‘good night’, Kun moves on to the next room. 

Renjun is tucked up as close to the wall as he possibly can without falling down the inch-wide gap between the wall and the bed. He’s pulled the covers up so high that with the light from the hallway flickering into the room, Kun can only just spot him from the mop of hair peeking out of the rocket ship patterned duvet covers. Renjun is well and truly down for the count, Kun presses a gentle kiss to his forehead, not wanting to wake him up, tucking the covers down the sides of his small frame, just how Kun knows he likes it. (Renjun has a thing about the feeling of blankets, even in the heat of the summer he has to sleep under the weight of his duvet and wakes up in the night if he’s kicked it off. They practically swaddle him, even as he gets older, in hopes he’ll sleep through the night.)

Yangyang is just about awake when Kun makes his way over to him, seconds away from falling asleep too. He looks up at Kun from the pile of blankets he’s gathered and manages a very small “Love you, baba.” as Kun kisses his forehead. Kun can’t help but smile at him, whispering another good night so he doesn’t wake the kids and closing the door as quietly as he can before he goes to bed and joins Ten.

  
  


Kun wraps an arm around his waist, pulling Ten closer to him, Ten’s head resting on his chest, relaxing in Kun’s arms as they curl up in bed together.

  
  


Kun and Ten have always balanced each other out. They’re an unusual combination, not two people you would think to put together, but they work. Where Ten’s free-spirited, creative, emotional, Kun’s logical, a rule follower, level-headed. They shouldn’t work like they do, but at the end of the day Kun loves Ten, Ten loves Kun and they’ve made a beautiful family and Kun wouldn’t think about trading this life for another. 

* * *

  
  
  
  


Hendery was six years old when his nightmares were the worst. It pained both Ten and Kun every time they heard his gentle sobs in the middle of the night. They hadn’t gotten to the bottom of it as quickly as they’d hoped, there was no horror movie or scary thing that had happened to start them and it broke their hearts.

Kun was walking across the landing to go to bed himself when little hands start tugging at the fabric of his pyjama trousers. 

“Baba?” His voice sounds so small, so drowsy and Kun _knows_ that’s what he sounds like when he’s about to cry.

He looks down at Hendery and smiles, crouching down to be eye level with him. “Hi buddy, what are you doing up?”

Hendery’s arms reach up to Kun in the same way he’s always done when he wants to be picked up. “I got lost.”

“Another bad dream? Buddy. I’m sorry. You’re not lost, you’re right here with baba.”

Hendery wraps his arms firmly around Kun and Kun gives in to picking him up, even if Hendery is getting a bit too big for it now. His little fists grip at Kun’s shirt as his eyes start to well up, he starts shaking and he begins pouting. “I’m scared, baba.”

Kun sighs, sending a silent prayer that he’ll get Hendery to settle again soon, preferably before any tears start. “There’s nothing to be scared of bud, everything is just fine.”

Hendery hiccups and no, no, _no_ , Kun really didn’t want him to cry.

“It was dark baba,” Hendery cries, “y-you weren’t there when I looked for you.” He’s up to a full wail and Kun quickly maneuvers them downstairs so he doesn’t have any other teary-eyed children. 

Kun tucks Hendery against his body, pulling him into a tight hug in hopes that if he can’t soothe him just yet, he can at least muffle the sounds of his crying. “I’m here now buddy. I promise I’m not going anywhere.”

Hendery continues to sob into his chest for a few minutes, mumbling things occasionally but Kun can only make out the broken ‘baba’s’. Kun lets him wail for a few more minutes, letting him get all his sobbing out before he can get him to calm down, pacing back and forth along their living room floor. He pulls Hendery away from his chest so he can meet his eyes.

“Buddy, I know you’re scared but we’re going to be just fine. Can you breathe for me? Nice and deep like we do with daddy, okay?” Kun tries to demonstrate with over-exaggerated breaths to get Hendery to copy him but really, it’s just making Kun more breathless as he tries not to panic his kid. 

Kun sings little bits of songs he knows Hendery likes, especially the ones Kun always sang for Ten, making sure his voice is extra soft. Hopefully the crying will tire him out enough that he’ll fall asleep in his arms. Kun manages to wiggle a tissue out of his pocket to wipe at Hendery’s _lovely_ snot before he can rub it over Kun’s shirt. 

It takes a while but he finally stops hiccuping as he sobs, the first sign he’s calming down enough. He mimics the deep breathing Kun keeps trying, tears slowing down to sniffles, blinking away the last of his tears.

“I don’t like the forest in the dark baba, it’s, it’s scary.”

“I know buddy, it’s just in your dreams, it’s not real, you’re not alone, okay?”

“O-Okay baba.” And thank _god_ , Hendery lets out a small, half-sob every couple of minutes as Kun sways him back and forth, calming down.

Kun manages to get him back up the stairs, back into bed before he falls asleep in Kun’s arms. He pulls the covers tight around Hendery, making sure his favourite plushie is tucked into bed beside him. 

“Time to sleep, yeah? I’ll always fight off all your bad dreams. Baba loves you, I’ll be right here.”

Hendery blinks at him slowly a few times, the last of his tears fading. He nods gently in acknowledgment he heard Kun, too tired to do anything else. Kun kisses his forehead, brushing his hair off his face and listening to his breathing as it slows, gradually falling asleep. 

Kun wouldn't even change this.

* * *

"Okay Lele, daddy has had a long day so what do we need to get him to cheer him up?"

"Chocolate cake!"

"Yes we do! What else?"

"Cuddles!"

"That has to wait until we get home. What did I ask you to remember?"

"I remember... I remember, uh." Chenle has a habit of squishing his cheeks as he tries to remember something, his eyebrows are drawn close together and he looks far too adorable for words. Kun can't help but coo at him a little as Chenle continues to think. They've been working on him remembering things, asking Chenle to do little things. He gets excited about it, especially whenever Kun or Ten ask him what it was they wanted him to remember.

Chenle claps his hands, beaming up at Kun–ready to tell Kun that he's remembered. "Milk! We need milk!" He giggles and _fuck_ Kun’s heart can’t take it when his kids are this cute.

"Yeah we do! Well done for remembering Lele, let's go find the milk." Kun ruffles his hair and gives him a quick kiss on his forehead, smiling himself as Chenle giggles at Kun. Chenle's always had the most infectious smile and laugh, the type of smile that Kun catches a glimpse of and he'll immediately be in a better mood. Chenle's never been any good at hide and seek, his laughter always giving him away the moment anyone starts looking for him.

It takes them far longer than it should to finish all the shopping but Kun makes do, Chenle keeps him entertained with his comments and his smiling at elderly ladies who proceed to coo over Chenle for the next ten minutes. 

Chenle proudly walks into the house, carefully holding the cake box flat after Kun had warned him about not tipping it. He's already grinning as Kun opens the front door for him, trying not to run and find Ten like Kun knows he wants to. Ten had rang Kun on his lunch break, complaining for twenty minutes about how stressed he was with the new designs he had been working on. From what Kun's caught of Ten's venting he’s got another bad client but he has to make it work.

"Daddy? Daddy, where are you?"

"Hi munchkin," Ten ruffles his hair, the same way Kun did to Chenle in the store. "What've you got there?"

"Me and baba got you a present! I picked it myself, daddy! I hope you like it!"

"Thank you baby, my favourite!”

“Baba asked me to ‘member and I did! I ‘membered!”

“You remembered really well, baby, I’m proud of you.” Chenle beams up at him again, wrapping his little arms around Ten’s waist before running off to find something to play with.

“I got you another present too,” Kun says with a smirk, trying to hide his nerves. 

“Oh? Special husband present, or- roses? You got me roses?”

“Yes, I did. I know I never bring you home flowers, so I thought I would just for the hell of it and you’ve had a bad day and I know I haven’t done this in years but they’re pretty and you’re pretty and-”

Kun gets cut off by Ten’s lips against his, “Thank you, baby, they’re beautiful. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

* * *

Yangyang has a habit of hovering whenever Kun’s in the kitchen. He likes to be helpful whenever Kun’s cooking and even if he usually isn’t, Kun likes having him around.

“Is it good, baba?” Yangyang asks, holding up the cookie he’s cut out. It’s not in the shape of a star at all, it’s some sort of blob but as Yangyang holds it up, looking ridiculously proud of himself, all Kun can do is smile back at him and ruffles his hair.

“It’s amazing Yang, you did a good job.”

Yangyang carries on _trying_ to make his star-shaped cookies as Kun cleans up around him. He can hear Yangyang humming ‘Into the Unknown’ along with the speaker and Kun’s _really_ starting to regret taking the kids to see that as Chenle has sung it every day since and apparently Kun can’t escape it on their playlist. Kun doesn’t even realise he started humming the song too. From there, they both start to quietly sing along until Ten comes home half an hour later to find them dramatically singing a duet to whatever is playing now with kitchen utensils in their hands, putting on a quality performance to what they thought was no one else in the house. It’s Ten’s laughter from the doorway that pulls Kun out of his performance. His face flushes which only makes Ten laugh more. 

Renjun climbs up to the counter, changing the song to something he wants to sing, grabbing a spatula and joining Kun and Yangyang. Eventually they all join in, passionately singing along to their family playlist, dancing in the kitchen, the cookies forgotten.

* * *

When Kun stepped across the threshold, out of the cold December air and into the warmth of their home, it was like the world got a little brighter. It was gone eight, the sky had darkened, all the christmas lights had been turned on along their road, flashing blues, whites and yellows through the windows (reflecting annoyingly off any sort of mirrored surface in their front room but they looked pretty all the same).

He’d driven home with nothing but the sound of the radio humming gently in the background, some radio host chatting away, one that Kun didn’t recognise (nor pay enough attention to in order to actually take in what they were saying whatsoever), a stark contrast to the music (a playlist he’s all too familiar with), laughing and screaming he heard from the moment he opened the door.

Chenle ran past him and up the stairs, yelling a quick “Hi baba!” before bursting into laughter again as Yangyang came running around the corner, slowing down just enough for Kun to ruffle his hair in lieu of a greeting before he was out of reach again, as Ten shouted at them to be careful. Kun slipped off his shoes, registering the faint smell of food and following it in hopes of finding Ten. Usually, he’d be wrapped in a mound of blankets, sketching, by then. Kun was later than usual, having had far too long of a shift at the hospital. The kids were evidently still up rather than tucked in front of the TV with whatever Christmas-themed movie they’d picked (fought over) for that evening. 

Instead, Kun found Ten in the kitchen cooking dinner for them all. Ten’s iPad was left on the side, lit up and laying on the counter (clearly forgotten about for a moment) with the beginning stages of a design Kun didn’t think he’d seen before. 

Kun wrapped his arms around Ten’s waist, hugging him from behind before placing a light kiss to his forehead, whispering a soft “Hi, _love_.” in his ear.

Kun waited as Ten turned his attention away from the stove to Kun, leaning into his chest and muttering “Hi, baby.” in Kun’s own ear, a smile breaking out on his face.

They stayed like that for a few moments with Ten’s speaker playing some soft r&b he’d been obsessed with as of late. They’ve always had a limited Christmas music allowance due to Ten’s distaste for it, unless one of the kids (read: Hendery) guilt trips them into playing ‘All I Want For Christmas’ for roughly the thirty-second time that day. There was the faint sound of Chenle and Yangyang laughing (others would have described it as screaming) echoing in their ears from the upstairs of the house.

  
  


_(It’s the moments like these that Kun doesn’t think he’d change anything about. He has Ten in his arms, his kids are happy and he’s filled with an overwhelming sense of love. Maybe it’s something to do with the holiday season, or the relief of having a few days away from the hospital–Kun doesn’t mind either way. He feels ‘home’ and it is everything he ever wanted it to be.)_

  
  


“How was your day?” Kun asks, breaking the silence between them.

“Chaotic,” Ten sighs. “I had _four_ clients call me asking for designs for their new collections all due by next week but I’ve already gotten two finished. When I went to pick up the kids Chenle was _not_ prepared to let go of Jisung, Yangyang only had one shoe on, Hendery had someone else's backpack and _oh_ ! Jun has a new friend. He went straight to his room when we got home, I haven’t seen him since. Hendery’s been moving the decorations around on the Christmas tree because he decided they were in the wrong place, _again_ . Yang and Chenle have been messing around and I don’t _want_ to know what a state the playrooms in, or them to be honest.” 

Kun presses another kiss to his forehead, pulling away to grab bowls out the cupboard as Ten turns down the heat on the pan. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, you’ve had loads of designs stored incase of something like this and you _love_ fashion week, this is a great opportunity and you’ll do great. It’s still a couple months away, you’ve got time. Yangyang’s just chaotic, there’s nothing to worry about. Hendery will be fine, if he wants to move it all around again, let him, it keeps him distracted and he’s not doing any harm. It’s good Le’s settling in well, going to school with Jisung will be good for him, even if sending him to that school isn’t good for our bank account and you’ll have to make nice with Taeyong over your _stupid_ charity bake sale competition.”

“Not all of us are gifted at baking Kun! _One_ time I bought flapjacks and he won’t let me live it down and–”

“Ten, _love_ , it’s really not that big of a deal.” Kun pretends like he doesn’t see the way Ten pouts and rolls his eyes. “But Renjun made a new friend? Finally?”

“I know! He hasn’t said anything and I don’t want to nag him about it, he’s been glued to his phone more than usual the last few days and today I saw him saying goodbye to someone I don’t recognise.”

“ _Oh, interesting._ I mean it’s great he’s branching out from Jeno, Jaemin and Hyuck, but I guess we wait for him to talk about it?”

“I really want to snoop, does it make me a bad parent if I snoop?”

“I’d feel guilty, we can’t spy on our own children.”

_“Can’t we?”_

“ _Ten!_ We will not be the type of parents to invade their privacy–”

“It’s for the greater good!”

“NO! We promised we wouldn’t be like that _and_ we agreed that Injun always talks to us about things when _he’s_ ready too.”

“I know,” Ten whined, “I just– I don’t like not knowing. We haven’t met him _or_ his parents, he needs to be vetted.”

“You need to stop running background checks on these people, my love.”

“I do some basic facebook and instagram stalking, it’s nothing _major_.”

“Stay out of it, Ten. He’ll talk to us when he’s ready and you know what he’s like. When he’s sure of something he doesn’t stop talking about it, so you won’t even _need_ to invade your childs’ privacy.” Ten stuck his tongue out in response, before turning around and finishing up making their dinner.

“He’ll tell us when he’s ready.” Ten mumbled to himself, a habit he’s developed to reassure himself of these things. They drop the subject, they forget it between Chenle talking about whatever he and Jisung did that day and the other three bickering about something stupid. Kun watches with a fond smile, meeting Ten’s eyes across the table, the same fond look gazes back at him.

  
  


Kun knows he’s just worried. Kun’s worried too but one of them has to pretend like they _know_ everything will be okay, this time it’s Kun. 

They moved the kids to a new school at the beginning of the term, deciding that while they had the money sending them to a good school would be better for them in the long run. It fits their kids, each in their different ways; Hendery has smaller classes so no one minds when he takes a little longer on the worksheets, Renjun has an extra art lesson where he can put his headphones in and draw for a while to let his emotions out, the teachers don’t get mad when Yangyang is a little louder than the rest and instead are patient with him, and Chenle doesn’t have to worry so much about mixing up his languages. 

They’ve all settled in well. Renjun has no issues in his classes but unlike the others, he’s taken a little longer to make friends. They aren’t _too_ worried about it yet, Renjun has always taken more time to open up and considering he’s shared the same three friends since he was born, it’s not entirely surprising. But despite being at a new school, he’s actually joined his life-long friends. Unfortunately, they aren’t in any of his classes because Jeno hates chemistry with a passion and so spends more time working on his English homework and Donghyuck and Jaemin managed to _accidentally_ set their physics teacher on fire last year, so it’s no wonder as to how they ended up in different classes. Renjun’s always been independent but Ten’s also been a firm believer in needing a good group of friends ‘to survive the pain and torture that is upper school, _obviously_ ’.

They check in on him regularly, make sure he’s doing okay, that there’s no cause for concern. One thing Renjun certainly has in common with Kun is that he’s a terrible liar, and has a certain penchant for ice cream whenever he’s feeling upset or stressed– a habit Kun has been unable to fall out of ever since he was a teenager (which is longer ago than he’d like to admit). 

Ten on the other hand doesn’t like the ‘not knowing’. Renjun used to, and still does, hide his art away. He’s had ‘keep out’ written in block-capitals across the front of his sketchbooks for the past few years and Kun _knows_ it’s because Renjun knew Ten had a habit of snooping. He means well, just wanting to bond with is son over something creative (and no, Hendery’s play dough sculptures don’t count in Ten’s eyes, no matter how _interesting_ they become over the years). Kun on the other hand has no ‘taste’ for the arts, or at least that’s what Ten tells him. Kun had piano lessons profusely as a child and unfortunately, that’s where he would agree his creativity ends.

(He’s not mad about it, Ten easily makes up enough creativity for the two of them.)

Kun’s art knowledge only goes as far as what he remembers from his and Ten’s early days, their first years together, when he managed to pay his full attention to what Ten would say as they went to museums and galleries all over the world. Kun was much younger back then and his memory was much greater. These days Kun barely remembers what he had for breakfast, that's the price he supposes he has to pay for having four children and a job that steals just about all his time. Renjun only likes telling them about things when he’s _sure_. He doesn’t tell them he has a test coming up until he returns home with an A marked on it or when he brings home his progress checks at the end of each term. Frankly, Ten spent a long time worrying that they’d never know Renjun’s interests with him being so closed-off.

They’d decided pretty early on that Renjun was Ten’s child. They didn’t know who’s he was, and frankly they didn’t want to, but it was something fun they’d like to guess when the kids were younger and they’d had more wine than either of them care to admit. Renjun had always been infatuated with Ten’s art, particularly when he was younger, he’d sit and watch Ten sketch all afternoon without a single complaint, completely absorbed by every stroke and movement Ten made. It was, and still is, a sight that is comforting to Kun. 

Renjun was eleven when he first showed his sketchbook to Ten (willingly), having left it out in the open for the first time ever, his way of saying he’s ready without having to face the reactions of either of his parents. When they’d sat down flicking through it, Ten had been so emotional over the fact he’d been hiding it. It was beautiful, filled with colours, acrylics, watercolours and even glitter (which looked more like toddler aged Chenle’s finger paintings and probably were).

Kun thinks his art looks dreamy, vaguely like all the astronomy books they have stacked up in the living room, but unlike the photos, Renjun’s turned it into a mix of blues, pinks, yellows and purples. Kun might not know much about art but he can appreciate that his son is talented. Renjun’s sketchbooks over the years had become something sacred to him. His way of expressing his emotions, not being able to talk about them aloud, he could show Ten through his drawings. 

Ten knows the answers he wants are hiding in Renjun’s sketchbook but he and Kun made a decision together that they would never push. They’ve each formed good, healthy relationships with their children and they wouldn’t want to change that for the world. 

When Renjun sketches out in the open, Kun ruffles his hair (which usually earns him a groan and his hand swatted away), and Ten will resist the urge to ask him about it, instead he’ll work on his own drawings across the table. It’s calming, a comfortable kind of silence. It’s times like these that Kun appreciates all that they have. 

The works that Renjun lets his parents get their hands on, usually end up hung somewhere in the house. As of late, Ten’s been hanging them up in the kitchen so he has an excuse to marvel over them without anyone knowing his true intentions. Ten’s even been letting Renjun use his ipad to experiment with, having mimicked Ten’s usual signature in the corner in his most recent projects and neither Kun nor Ten can help the way they smile at that. 

> It’s a few weeks into the new year when Kun notices that Renjun’s been working on the same sketch for a while. Usually Renjun only does quick things, or has a habit of abandoning projects (many of his sketches remained unfinished but he kind of likes it that way). He tries to subtly peak over Renjun’s shoulder at it but Renjun just whines and tells him he should just ask if he wants to see it so badly. There’s no one else home and Kun almost felt nervous at the prospect of Renjun showing him his art. Renjun shows him before he can ask properly, revealing a sketch of a boy that Kun doesn’t recognise. 
> 
> “He’s a friend, his name is Lucas. He’s chinese too and he’s in most of my classes and he’s really sweet. You’d like him a lot. And I know that you’re going to say you want to meet him whenever I’m ready and you want to invite him over for tea so I did. He’s coming on friday with Dejun and I’m not telling dad because he’ll have too many questions I don’t want to answer right now.” 
> 
> Kun doesn’t say much, just compliments Renjun’s work, in awe of his talent (as always) and comments on the attention to detail in the portrait. Renjun blushes at that and turns from the portrait to where he’s drawing a new cartoon for Chenle. 
> 
> (Kun tells Ten about it later on, he does plenty of whining and complaining until he realises that’s exactly why Renjun didn’t tell him. He pouted for a while but Kun managed to distract him by talking about his new designs.)

* * *

Kun loves every moment he spends with the kids. Every single second spent with them, whether it's lugging them from the car where they've fallen asleep up to bed, whether it's three a.m. and Kun starts work in a few hours but Hendery's had another nightmare so instead they're drinking chocolate milk while sat on the kitchen floor and Kun tries to read Hendery's favourite books in the silly voices that Ten does for him (but he's not as good and the kids _always_ make sure to tell him that).

Kun loves the first day of school when Chenle's insistent on showing off his new rucksack (even though Kun's already seen it), and he definitely doesn't cry and Ten definitely doesn't laugh at him for it every time even though Kun knows he's trying to hold back tears too.

Kun never got bored of walking Renjun around their village to try and get him to fall asleep in the middle of the night because there was something about the fresh air that made him fall asleep.

Kun knows he'll cry at every graduation, check for monsters under the bed for Yangyang every single night until the day Yangyang grows out of it. He knows he will give in and let them have sweets for dinner every now and then despite his continuous attempts at sneaking vegetables into their meals in the hopes they don't notice (the Renjun and broccoli agenda him and Ten have been working on for six months is still unsuccessful). 

Kun knows he'll have to hold Ten back from being too aggressive with the whole 'hurt my baby and I'll kill you' speech when the kids bring someone home for the first time. Kun knows he'll have to sit through dozens more roller coaster rides because Chenle pulls on his hand and pouts until he says yes and Kun's the only one who doesn't get queasy on all the rides.

Kun's got all his weird and wonderful video footage from their very first days, ready to turn it into something comprehensive whenever he gets a chance one of these days. (Ten always says they've only lived half a lifetime, they've still got another half to go.)

Kun’s prepared to spend hundreds of pounds on books for whatever takes Renjun's fancy next, much to Ten’s dismay, but it's getting Renjun out of his shell and that's all they could ever hope for.

Kun knows he'll have dozens of panics whenever he sees Yangyang with a sharpie marker in hand, even if he's not three years old anymore and has learnt that the walls are not where he's supposed to write.

Kun's prepared for a lifetime of Hendery's random questions (it's not every day he gets asked what his least favourite type of bird is).

  
Kun loves the days when his coffee has gone cold, Ten has fallen asleep beside him on the sofa, Hendery has been building _something_ out of play doh, Renjun is scribbling away on his tablet, Yangyang has tipped lego _everywhere_ and Chenle has been singing the frozen soundtrack for the last two hours straight. Kun doesn’t care how tired he gets, or how loud their house is, he wouldn’t change even a second of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading ♡
> 
> -> twitter // cc (after reveals)


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